As mayor he has failed to communicate appropriately with the City Council on major financial issues (the pension modification proposal and the recent stadium scoreboard and renovation announcement) and seems to be in hiding instead of leading by publicly supporting the values of his own proposals.

I don't want to see the mayor in parades, being a sanitation worker for a day or any other "fluff."

I want to see him stand up and lead. Be willing to win some and lose some if the result is best for Jacksonville.

To start the process, the Mayor's Office should immediately initiate public discussion with the City Council on the proposed pension reform and come to some agreement that provides more near-term benefit for the city.

Also make a funding presentation for the stadium scoreboard and back it with facts. If the Jags scoreboard request is properly funded and approved, it should not be done without the minimum requirement that if the team is relocated in the next five years, the city will be reimbursed the then present value of its investment.

Without an NFL team, the world's largest scoreboard becomes the world's largest TV set.

David Stimpson, Jacksonville

DEEP THOUGHTS

Life lessons

» I'm sorry absent recompense is meaningless.

» Surpassing one's "personal best" is the only humane competition.

» No man with a good friend dies a pauper.

» The journey is the joy.

» Good enough never is.

» First consider the cost of being wrong.

» Exercising free choice requires owning the consequences.

» Common sense is commonly wrong.

» Plan for spontaneity.

Wallace Hodge, Kingsland, Ga.

PAULA DEEN

Give me a break

The crucifixion of Paula Deen is a simple act of cowardice.

Deen used the "N word" about 30 years ago. Fifty years ago, it was common slang in my high school, and that was in the North. What was said back then has no relevance to 2013

If The Food Channel, Home Depot and the rest of the hypocrites want to be fair, I have a suggestion: grab a handful of pink slips and ask each of their employees if they ever used the "N word."

Or just look in the mirror.

Rick Mansfield, Ponte Vedra Beach

REPLY: WEATHERSBEE COLUMN

Thoughts on Cherish

I just wanted to thank you, Tonyaa Weathersbee, for the column on Cherish Perrywinkle.

My immediate response was that it is a terrible thing in our society today that a mother would be so in need of help with basics like food and clothes for her children that she would let her guard down.

Reading her column made me more aware of how poverty provides a pool of prey for predators.

I read in the paper that the prosecutor had dropped the habitual offender status from this man's last case. Yet they never seem to drop the three strikes policy for drug users or people who could be rehabilitated.

I always read Tonyaa's columns and find them thought-provoking.

Leanne Mathis, Jacksonville

CONFRONTING ABUSERS

Use video

A reader regrets letting the state attorney accept a plea deal at Donald Smith's last hearing. It is understandable that she did not want her daughter to face the molester in court.

The solution is simple. Allow videotaped testimony by the child victim. The recorded testimony should be admissible in court.

This legal procedure can eliminate a plea deal, and the molester might serve longer prison time.

Nelson Mashour Jr., Jacksonville

GERRYMANDERING

A solution

It is critically important in a democracy that everyone's vote should count equally. But there may be better ways to assure this than the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in which only certain states and localities were scrutinized.

For example, one of the main ways people have been deprived of their rightful voice has been redistricting to isolate certain types of voters so as to limit the number of representatives they can elect. The majority political party in a state usually does this to its own advantage.

This could be fixed at the U. S. House level by having representatives elected by proportional voting of an entire state, not from specific localities. If districts are necessary, keep politicians out of the redistricting process and have it done by a neutral party.

Patricia DeWitt, Jacksonville

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